1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to disposable food containers and the like. More particularly, this invention relates to disposable food containers formed out of relatively transparent plastic material and particularly adapted to holding single or individual servings of food products such as cakes and pies.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Disposable containers for packaging, distributing, displaying or otherwise housing bakery goods, such as cakes, pies and the like, are becoming increasingly important in modern-day convenience food industry. The obvious desirability of means to permit visible inspection of the food product within such packages or containers has led to formation thereof of disposable see-through plastic material of different types. While a large variety of serving trays and covers are available for traditional "deli" products such as cakes, cheese, sauces, fresh vegetables and the like, a particular demand has become established in recent years for disposable see-through containers which are specifically adapted for housing single servings of products such as cakes and pies.
Such single-serving cake/pie containers are generally triangular housings which conform to the typically wedge-shaped individual portions cut out of cakes or pies. Such conventional single-serving container designs are problematic in several areas when used with pie servings. When used to house slices of freshly-baked pies, for instance, the crust thereof is commonly damaged as a result of being placed and contained within conventional pie slice containers. A primary reason for this problem is that freshly-baked pie slices have a crust which is relatively fragile and easily broken or crumbled. Consequently, conventional pie slice packages or containers are problematic in that no supporting structure is provided therein which can prevent fragile pie crust portions from collapsing within the package. Consequently, the visual appearance of the pie as well as its "quality" (from the consumer's viewpoint) is significantly damaged.
An added problem with conventional single-serving packages of the above-discussed type is that once the individual serving of the food product, particularly a pie slice or the like, has been placed inside the package, it is difficult to remove the slice from the package or container without damaging the food product contained therein. Obviously, the problem is compounded in the case of freshly-baked pie slices because of the fragile nature of the pie crust; the manipulation generally necessary to lift up the pie slice by its crust tends to affect the crust by crushing, crumbling or otherwise breaking it up. The end result, again, is that the visual appearance and "quality" of the contained food product is adversely affected.
In pie slice containers of the above-noted type, a common design feature is to provide a container in the form of separate base and lid sections which are adapted to be locked together by means of an interference fit between opposed mating sections. The problem with such a design, particularly because of the use of thin plastic material for forming the separate container sections, is the difficulty involved in correctly aligning the mating sections of the container base and the lid prior to forcing them together in an interference fit manner.
There, accordingly, exists a distinct need for a disposable single-serving container or package which is particularly adapted for housing pie slices and the like while avoiding the structural and functional disadvantages associated with conventional single-serving packages.